For many years protective equipment and more specifically protective head equipment such as helmets have been utilized to protect athletes of a variety of sports from head injuries. Protective head equipment is commonly used by athletes of a variety of sports involving projectiles such as balls, pucks, bats, and sticks. Protective head equipment of this type is particularly important to safeguard the well-being of the athletes and more importantly young athletes who are less experienced, and therefore more likely to make a mistake while participating in a sport that could result in very serious injury without some form of protection. Recently, in part due to increased media attention given to severe head injuries, significant consideration has been given to head protection for athletes.
Protective head equipment is particularly important for use by athletes in the game of baseball and softball. Today, almost all batters and catchers are wearing some sort of equipment to protect against head injury from, for example, a thrown or batted ball. Unfortunately from the number of injuries, the potential for serious and even deadly head injuries resulting from a thrown or batted ball are well understood but still have not be sufficiently addressed. Specifically, there are a growing number of head and brain injuries caused when batted or thrown baseballs or softballs strike a fielder or batter in the head. For example, pitched ball speeds of over 90 mph have been recorded at the high school level. The high speed of pitched balls in conjunction with the number of pitched balls thrown during a game lead to a high probability that a batter can be struck in the head and more particularly face. The vulnerability is increased when the batter is not wearing face protection. The result of the impact of the ball to a batter's head can result in broken bones, injured eyes, broken teeth and potentially even more serious trauma to the batter's head.
Conventional protective head equipment worn by batters typically does not protect the face of the batter. The protective head equipment typically includes a bulky unitary hard helmet structure that covers at least the crown, top, and rear of the athlete's head and also has side flaps that covers the sides of the athlete's head. In some instances, various face guards are attached to the helmet so as to provide a cage or grid of rigid bars that pass across the player's face which are secured to the opposing sides of the helmet. Unfortunately, many baseball or softball players above the age of 9 do not wear full face protection due to the weight and unappealing design of these face guards.
This conventional protective head equipment with or without a facemask does not accommodate for the movements and activities performed by a batter while playing offense (hitting, running, sliding, etc.) or for fielders while playing defense. For example, batters and base runners are at risk that a thrown or batted ball could strike them in the head and more particularly the face while they are moving between bases. In addition, when wearing conventional helmets, a base runner's face is exposed and is therefore vulnerable to contact with the defensive player. For example, the runner's face may contact the defensive player's knee or elbow or the spikes on the bottom of a defensive player's shoes when the base runner is sliding into a base. Further, the vision apertures of conventional helmets typically include bars, which obstruct the athlete's view. Additionally, current batting helmets that include facemasks are often bulky and heavy and therefore unstable on an athlete's head. This conventional equipment is simply just too bulky and limiting for baseball batters to optimize their play and safety while playing offense.